Total Submission
When the little mechanic was 16 years old he went to the big city to start going to another school, while living with his grandmother and aunt. He was given the job as janitor, so after school was out for the day he cleaned the school to pay for his tuition. It’s good to labor with the hands as well as the brain so there was nothing better for him for a well-balanced education. What a good tool a broom is, many a young person has earned his way through his education with a broom.
His Uncles liked to show the young mechanic how to fix their cars when they worked on theirs. He was anxious to learn and to become acquainted with the common problems people run into with driving vehicles. It wasn’t long before one of these uncles made it possible for him to own his own car. He was overjoyed and had so much fun doing the jobs that needed to be done to keep it running. This is what he always liked doing, experimenting and fixing and even making his own tools to get something working again. But it is a long learning process from start to finish, so now he had started, and soon to experience the need for a lot of patience and work to achieve his goal and face each day’s problems with the proper remedies and tools, mentally, physically and spiritually.
Some children don’t like school, but this mechanic just loved it and he loved the people in the school and the church and his family very much, and thy loved him in return.
His Great Grandmother also was living with Grandmother, and the preacher from the church would come to visit her and study the Bible with her. The mechanic and his aunt would watch television while Grandma learned more about the Word of God and His love for her. On one of the preacher’s visits he asked the mechanic if he would like to watch the Bible study on film because he had a very interesting subject to study that time. So he and his aunt participated in the study. It was so interesting that they continued with the Bible studies when the pastor came each time. He was beginning to see that the mechanics of his own life needed some chiseling and grinding on his character and that He needed to have Jesus for His Guide and Savior. The Lord was using the right tools to soften his heart to be receptive of the wonderful Words of Jesus. Little by little He leads us a step at a time to the foot of the cross. After some time of study he decided to give his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized in the water as Jesus was in the Jordan River.
As Jesus suffered on this earth, the mechanic soon learned that following Jesus means to take His cross and that cross can include many different kinds of objects and tools to fit the character for heaven and to be like Jesus in every aspect of the daily life. Like every job a person takes on for their livelihood, has a tool or tools of some kind to do the work, God has numerous ways to clean and polish the character to develop it after the likeness of the purity of Christ. Every person’s situation is different, but God knows every detail and the angels are writing it all down in the books of heaven. It’s a daily work to examine our own life to see how much it matches up to the life of Jesus. We do not want to fill our mind with the words of man, but with God’s Word.
Time speeds on by and the mechanic decided to go to another school. He was very happy to be able to work on the school farm. He spent hours and hours out in the fields driving the tractor. They grew a vegetable garden with a good variety of fresh produce with a big field of potatoes. There were fields of grain and hay for the cattle that they milked. It was an enjoyable way to learn and work at the same time.
Some day the mechanic would learn that it does not pay to stay up all night going over the fields. It does not make sense to stay awake at night and then sleep all day. God made the night for rest and sleep and He made the day for work and play when we can see what is going on without the use of artificial lights, which also is an extra expense. How can you stay awake in class and be alert to what the teacher is saying when you have been up all night long. Sometimes the devil has us doing things backward and we really don’t catch on like we should, to what he is doing to us.
Back in the bush near his parents home lived a very nice Indian family. They wanted to be out away from the evils of the common surroundings and teach their children a better way. They spent their summer months working in the wilderness and teaching their children to be useful and hard-working citizens. Well, what do you suppose, this mechanic fell in love with one of the daughters of this family and was sure he wanted to marry this beautiful girl.
The mechanic was in need of finding work, so he could go back to school. Sometimes he worked for other farmers, doing their hard work, from sunrise to set of sun. He enjoyed the work and the people were good to him.
The class where they taught him mechanics was just his thing. They would take the motors apart and they put them back together just the same way it was to begin with. He learned about every tool he could and what it was used for. Wrenches of all kinds, screwdrivers, every shape and size, saws and drills, grinders and hammers, lights and ground covers, cover-alls and gloves, safety glasses and brushes, jacks and levers, were a few of the common necessities. He began to buy his own tools one at a time and kept them in his car to have it on hand just in case of breakdown of his own car or to be able to help someone else if need be.
Now just what kind of tools are we storing in our mind? Are we being the kind gentle person that people would look up to? Are we honest and truthful in every dealing with our self and others and with our God. It is common to see the tools of hate and ugly words and me first attitude, displayed without embarrassment. But what are these tools going to meet with in the judgment? Jesus will say I never knew you, for He is the embodiment of love, joy, peace and longsuffering and kindness. Gentleness and generosity are what He is looking for. Look at what Jesus gave to you, and He offers you a future of eternal life if you will only accept it by returning obedience to Him because you love Him with all your heart. What a blessed privilege He has offered this wicked world in return for what we did to Him. Every time we sin we crucify Jesus again and again.
“Has this great change taken place in you? Be not deceived. I would never name the name of Christ, or I would give Him my whole heart, my undivided affections. We should feel the deepest gratitude that Jesus will accept this offering. He demands all. When we are brought to yield to His claims, and give up all, then, and not till then, will He throw around us His arms of mercy. But what do we give when we give all? A sin-polluted soul for Jesus to purify, to cleanse by His mercy, and to save from death by His matchless love. And yet I saw that some thought it hard to give up all. I am ashamed to hear it spoken of, ashamed to write it.
Do you talk about self-denial? What did Christ give for us? When you think it hard that Christ requires all, go to Calvary, and weep there over such a thought. Behold the hands and feet of your Deliverer torn by the cruel nails that you may be washed from sin by His own blood!
Those who feel the constraining love of God do not ask how little may be given in order to obtain the heavenly reward; they ask not for the lowest standard, but aim at a perfect conformity to the will of their Redeemer. With ardent desire they yield all, and manifest zeal proportionate to the value of the object of which they are in pursuit. What is the object? Immortality, eternal life.
“Young friends, many of you are sadly deceived. You have been satisfied with something short of pure and undefiled religion.
I want to arouse you. The angels of God are trying to arouse you.
Oh, that the important truths of the word of God may arouse you to a sense of your danger, and lead you to a thorough examination of yourselves!”
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